Rumour 5 «Hinashiro Grove»
YUKARI: (Now... What to do...)
A: "Wasn't there someone we could contact in cases like this...?" B: "Hey, Chisato..." C: "Let's take another look at the last desk correspondence."
A: "Wasn't there someone we could contact in cases like this...?" [X] B: "Hey, Chisato..." C: "Let's take another look at the last desk correspondence."
YUKARI: "Say, Chisato, wasn't there someone well versed in paranormal things who we could contact at times like this?"
CHISATO: "Hm..."
CHISATO: "Ah! What about this man called Aramata that Mika would often call when she wanted to ask about ghost phenomena and the like? He might know something."
YUKARI: "Good idea!"
YUKARI: "So... What's his phone number?"
CHISATO: "Wait, you don't know?"
YUKARI: "Don't tell me you don't know it, either..."
CHISATO: "Guess we cannot call him, then..."
A: "Hey, Chisato..." B: "Let's take another look at the last desk correspondence."
A: "Hey, Chisato..." B: "Let's take another look at the last desk correspondence." [X]
YUKARI: "For now, let's have another look at that... desk correspondence."
CHISATO: "You're right..."
CHISATO: "There might be something we've missed..."
«Today, I am leaving.»
«Please meet with me just once, before I go.»
«I will be waiting for you at 6:30 pm at the shrine in the mountains.»
«S. H.»
YUKARI: "She wrote that she'd be waiting..."
CHISATO: "I think it's safe to say that she was there."
YUKARI: "Hey, when do you think this was written?"
CHISATO: "......"
YUKARI: "Sakura Himegami died 30 years ago, and yet..."
YUKARI: "Does that mean the one who's been replying to Mika is Sakura from 30 years ago?"
YUKARI: "Or do you think it's her ghost?"
CHISATO: "Maybe these two things are one and the same...?"
YUKARI: "What?"
CHISATO: "For her, time has stopped 30 years ago..."
CHISATO: "So even if the one who has been writing these messages on the desk is her ghost, it would still essentially be Sakura Himegami from 30 years ago."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "That's why I think we need to find something that might give us more clues about her..."
YUKARI: "I wouldn't even know where to start!"
CHISATO: "She was a student here, so maybe we'll find something in the list of graduates from that time."
YUKARI: "I see... Do you know where the name registers are in this library?"
CHISATO: "Sorry..."
YUKARI: "Guess we've got no choice but to search for them ourselves, huh..."
CHISATO: "Yukari, let's go through the books in this room first!" [I tried to open the door to the librarian's office.]
YUKARI: "Encyclopedias... Dictionaries..."
CHISATO: "Doesn't look like we'll find anything here... Let's look somewhere else."
YUKARI: "Uhm... «Small edition newspapers»...?"
YUKARI: "Wow, they go back as far as the 1920s!"
CHISATO: "They even include newspapers from before the war. That's kind of crazy."
YUKARI: "«Chaos and Fractals»... «Theorem solving»... «Vectors»..."
YUKARI: "... My head hurts!"
CHISATO: "Ah, right, math is not exactly your strongest point."
YUKARI: "«The Science of Folklore»... «Introduction to Cultural Anthropology»... «Jung and Freud»..."
CHISATO: "I've read those books. They were actually pretty interesting!"
YUKARI: "But the name registers don't seem to be here."
YUKARI: "«The Post-War Era»... «Kantō Area: Modern History»... «Japanese History – The Middle Ages»..."
CHISATO: "This seems to be the History section..."
YUKARI: "«Ten Nights of Dreams»... [Natsume Souseki] «The Moon over the Mountain»... [Nakajima Atsushi] ... and «The Wind Rises». [Hori Tatsuo]"
CHISATO: "They even have new books in here."
YUKARI: "This is the Japanese literature section, huh. Let's look somewhere else."
YUKARI: "Let's see... «50 Years of Hinashiro High School»... These are books that concern the school!"
CHISATO: "This should be the right place to look, then!"
YUKARI: "Here they are, the lists of graduates! Let's look for the list from Shouwa 38..." [=1963]
YUKARI: "Here!"
CHISATO: "Is she in there?"
YUKARI: "Wait... Himegami, Himegami..."
YUKARI: "Found her!"
YUKARI: "She's listed under graduation class 3-D... as a special case."
CHISATO: "Because she passed away before graduation, I suppose..."
YUKARI: "I see... Her accident in the mountains happened when she was a second-year, right?"
CHISATO: "Yukari, I wonder, if we can somehow find more details about her accident in the mountains."
YUKARI: "But that was over 30 years ago. No one still has newspapers from that long ago!"
CHISATO: "If I recall correctly, we stumbled across small edition newspapers earlier that go way back in time."
YUKARI: "What exactly were those, anyway...?"
CHISATO: "They are books in which downsized versions of all papers of a fiscal year have been collected."
CHISATO: "We might find something in these."
YUKARI: "Now that you mention it, we did see something like that earlier, didn't we..."
CHISATO: "Yes!"
YUKARI: "Great! Let's go!"
YUKARI: "Umm, by the way... Where were those again?"
CHISATO: "... What? You don't remember?"
YUKARI: "Jeez, whatever, we'll just look for them again."
YUKARI: "Found them."
CHISATO: "That's a relief."
YUKARI: "Let's see... What year was her accident again?"
CHISATO: "Shouwa 38." [=1963]
YUKARI: "38... 38... Ah, there!"
YUKARI: "......"
YUKARI: "... This has got to be it. «Female student falls from cliff and dies»"
«Yesterday, in the early morning, the body of Hinashiro High School second-year student Sakura Himegami (17) has been found within the Katashiro mountains.»
«Since she was found below a cliff, it is believed that she lost her footing and fell to her death.» [Something interesting about the name of these mountains: "Katashiro" are paper dolls used in purification rites.]
YUKARI: "So the mountains behind Hinashiro High School are called Katashiro Mountains..."
CHISATO: "This alone won't really help us learn more... Was Sakura's accident really just... an accident?"
CHISATO: "After all, she explicitly wrote something like «Today, I am leaving.» on that desk, right?"
CHISATO: "What do you think those words could mean?"
YUKARI: "......"
A: "Yes, that's strange." B: "More importantly, why did Mika disappear?"
A: "Yes, that's strange." [X] B: "More importantly, why did Mika disappear?"
YUKARI: "You mean... She wrote that BEFORE she died, is what you're getting at, right?"
CHISATO: "I think we can find some relevant literature in this library. Let us have a look."
CHISATO: "Uhhhm... There are quite a few... Yukari, which one do you think we should check?"
A: "Let's try «On the Phenomenon of Suicide»." B: "I want to check out the «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena»." C: "What about «How to Look at Corpses»?"
A: "Let's try «On the Phenomenon of Suicide»." B: "I want to check out the «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena»." [X] C: "What about «How to Look at Corpses»?"
YUKARI: "Let's see, if we can find anything that might be relevant in that «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena»."
CHISATO: "Err... This one, right?"
YUKARI: "Let's see... What exactly should we look up?"
CHISATO: "How about this entry: «Entities that call out to us»?
«Such entities can take all kinds of forms and shapes.»
«Some might manifest themselves in people's dreams.»
«Others might dance in the sky as luminescent orbs that emit their words through electrical noise, incomprehensible to us humans...»
YUKARI: "...What the hell is this?"
CHISATO: "It appears to be talking about the phenomenon of spirits calling out to us from their world."
YUKARI: "I guess Sakura is doing that, too..."
CHISATO: "In her case, it manifested itself in the form of messages on a desk..."
YUKARI: "And through that she called out to Mika?"
CHISATO: "Yes..."
A: "What about «How to Look at Corpses»?" B: "More importantly, why did Mika disappear?" C: "Let's try «On the Phenomenon of Suicide»."
A: "What about «How to Look at Corpses»?" [X] B: "More importantly, why did Mika disappear?" C: "Let's try «On the Phenomenon of Suicide»."
YUKARI: "What about «How to Look at Corpses»?"
YUKARI: "How... about... something here..."
«Depending on the cause of death, corpses can take on various appearances, and no matter how many corpses you have, not one of them will be exactly the same as another.»
«When performing an autopsy...»
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "... What's wrong?"
YUKARI: "There was a picture... Of an actual dead body..."
CHISATO: "......"
YUKARI: "I wish I hadn't read this..."
A: "More importantly, why did Mika disappear?" B: "Let's try «On the Phenomenon of Suicide»."
A: "More importantly, why did Mika disappear?" B: "Let's try «On the Phenomenon of Suicide»." [X]
YUKARI: "In the end it's really hard to think of this as just an accident."
YUKARI: "Let's have a look at that «On the Phenomenon of Suicide» book..."
YUKARI: "Let's see..."
YUKARI: "Suicide by blood loss... Suicide through medicine... Suicide by hanging..."
CHISATO: "That's not a very pleasant book..."
YUKARI: "Here's something. Suicide by jumping..."
«In a sense, suicide by jumping can be called a rather modernistic method.»
«Being in the presence of high altitude does not only conjure up the image of "death" that is directly connected to it, but also makes it easy to induce the latent suicidal tendencies that exist within humans.»
«When standing in a high place, it is not uncommon for people to get the sudden impulse of wanting to jump...»
YUKARI: "What's this supposed to mean?"
YUKARI: "I'm not entirely sure I follow, but people will jump when going to high places?"
CHISATO: "Not exactly. It's saying that it can happen that people get the sudden impulse to jump."
CHISATO: "But I think Sakura's jumping down the cliff was not a spontaneous impulsive act."
YUKARI: "True. She wrote beforehand that she had to leave..."
CHISATO: "Exactly."
CHISATO: "I wonder, did Sakura really just commit suicide?"
YUKARI: "... Why are you doubting that now? She even left a note beforehand, didn't she?"
CHISATO: "That cliff there... It wasn't particularly high, was it?"
CHISATO: "If you wanted to commit suicide, wouldn't you choose a place with a higher probability to succeed?"
YUKARI: "Hmmm..."
CHISATO: "... You know, to me that note that Sakura left behind sounded like she was very sad..."
YUKARI: "Sad?"
CHISATO: "Yeah..."
CHISATO: "It seemed like she had given up and resigned herself to her fate."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "So I'm thinking... Maybe, just like she called Mika, perhaps she was also called by someone..."
YUKARI: "Hm, yes..."
YUKARI: "Are there any other useful books?"
CHISATO: "Hm..."
CHISATO: "As far as books go that could help us understand her cause of death, I think that's all."
YUKARI: "I see. ... Hey, I know I'm kinda changing the subject, but..."
YUKARI: "I'm still wondering how anyone can just disappear like that."
YUKARI: "I mean, Mika just vanished right in front of us!"
CHISATO: "Yes... I'm not too familiar with it, but isn't there a concept called «being spirited away»?" [The term she uses is "神隠し" (kamikakushi). See more on that in the video description.]
YUKARI: "That's something I've only heard of in fairy tales!"
CHISATO: "But still... Can we say for sure that all of them are completely made up with nothing based in reality?"
CHISATO: "I wonder if there aren't occurrences where somebody was truly taken away for some reason..."
YUKARI: "What kind of reason...?"
CHISATO: "Perhaps they happened upon something that was not of this world. Or perhaps they broke some kind of taboo... Things like that!"
YUKARI: "Which brings us back to the realm of supernatural phenomena... But you're right, it might be best to search for something related to the supernatural."
CHISATO: "I'll look for some relevant books. In the meantime please take a note of everything useful we've learnt from the books so far."
YUKARI: "Got it."
CHISATO: "Yukari, I found a few books that might be helpful!"
CHISATO: "Which one should we try?"
A: "The «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena» seems promising." B: "Let's try «Journey to the spirit world»." C: "I want to have a look at «Mysterious Disappearances»."
A: "The «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena» seems promising." B: "Let's try «Journey to the spirit world»." [X] C: "I want to have a look at «Mysterious Disappearances»."
YUKARI: "Let's try «Journey to the spirit world»."
CHISATO: "Okay."
YUKARI: "Let's see..."
«...Music and sounds are an important factor when it comes to crossing the border between this world and the spirit world.»
«When the head of a funeral procession is using instruments at the burial, this, too, is for the purpose of getting closer to the border of the spirit world by utilising sound...»
YUKARI: "When Mika disappeared... Were there any sounds?"
CHISATO: "Actually... There were."
YUKARI: "You heard something?!"
CHISATO: "There was a sound like a high pitched note..."
CHISATO: "I also recall hearing the sound of strong wind."
CHISATO: "At first I thought I was just imagining all that because I was so tense, but..."
YUKARI: "I didn't notice anything at all..."
A: "Next, let's have a look at «Mysterious Disappearances»." B: "We should try the «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena» next."
A: "Next, let's have a look at «Mysterious Disappearances»." [X] B: "We should try the «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena» next."
YUKARI: "Let's try «Mysterious Disappearances», next. That actually sounds like the most fitting book concerning this topic."
CHISATO: "Got it... Here it is."
«Since ancient times you can find in folklore tales of people or animals who suddenly vanish, like in Rip Van Winkle [an American short story], but real cases of such sudden disappearances actually exist.»
«The incident with the ship St. Mary in 1892 is a good example of this.» [It seems they actually meant the ship Mary Celeste that was found without anyone on board in 1872 near the Azores Islands.]
«This ship was found adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Azores Islands, with the entire crew having disappeared without a trace.»
«Such disappearances for which no apparent explanation could ever be found truly exist. On the other hand, there are also a great number of examples of the opposite, that is, of sudden appearances.»
YUKARI: "Sudden unexplained APPEARANCES, huh... I guess that term could actually also apply to Sakura, don't you think?"
CHISATO: "I wonder... After all, she died a long time ago."
CHISATO: "I think the sudden appearances that this is talking about might be something slightly different."
YUKARI: "So she is just a ghost after all?"
CHISATO: "I think so, but still... I wonder."
CHISATO: "Back there, I definitely felt her presence, but it didn't feel... evil or anything."
YUKARI: "Well, if she wasn't evil, then why did she take Mika away?"
CHISATO: "Yukari, it's not always ill intent that causes us to endanger others."
CHISATO: "I think Sakura really just wanted to meet Mika, just like she wrote in her message on the desk."
CHISATO: "But that emotion was too strong..."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "Yukari, do you know about Rip Van Winkle?"
YUKARI: "...Huh? Wasn't there something like that mentioned in this book?"
YUKARI: "... I don't know it, though."
CHISATO: "It's a story about a man who went into the woods and disappeared for several decades..." [20 years, to be precise.]
CHISATO: "Doesn't that kind of resemble our situation?"
CHISATO: "I think we should check out some more books about folklore."
CHISATO: "Wasn't there a book called «The Science of Folklore» earlier?"
A: "«The Science of Folklore»? Let's give it a try." B: "The «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena» seems promising, too."
A: "«The Science of Folklore»? Let's give it a try." B: "The «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena» seems promising, too." [X]
YUKARI: "Can you first bring me the «Encyclopedia of Supernatural Phenomena»?"
CHISATO: "We already had a look at that one earlier, though..."
YUKARI: "Yeah, but at least for searching by keywords it should be faster to use this one."
YUKARI: "Uhm... «Spirited away»... «Spirited away»... Hm?"
YUKARI: "That keyword doesn't exist in this book..."
CHISATO: "How about this entry instead? «Correspondence with the dead»."
YUKARI: "... You really have a keen eye for these things, huh."
«The correspondence with the dead has been a subject of research since old times.»
«When a spirit appears, this is often accompanied by the spirit indicating or displaying some sort of intention.»
YUKARI: "Hey, Chisato. What do you think why Sakura Himegami appeared...?"
YUKARI: "And why did she get so attached to Mika?"
CHISATO: "...I don't think it had anything to do with Mika in particular. Anyone would have been fine."
CHISATO: "I think in the beginning she really just wanted someone to exchange messages with."
CHISATO: "And Mika just is the one that happened to reply to her..."
YUKARI: "So..."
CHISATO: "In other words, this contact was not one-sided."
CHISATO: "I'd say Mika also wanted to meet with Sakura."
YUKARI: "So, it's not exactly like she was kidnapped... is what you're saying?"
CHISATO: "Yes."
CHISATO: "I do think that Sakura has exerted some sort of influence on Mika's mind."
CHISATO: "But if there wasn't some part of Mika that accepted her influence, then this would not have worked. Don't you think so, too?"
YUKARI: "Definitely..."
CHISATO: "That means... that it might also be difficult to get Mika back."
CHISATO: "We will have to bring Mika's own feelings back to... this side."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "Well, then... Let us have a look at this now. «The Science of Folklore»."
YUKARI: "This looks like quite the technical book..."
CHISATO: "Well, it is a proper book about the formal study of folklore."
«The archetype for the American story of Rip Van Winkle, who went into the mountains and jumped twenty years into the future after meeting some dwarves, can be found in a German folk tale.» [Possibly "Peter Klaus" by Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal. See video description for more.]
«In Japan, the story of Urashima Tarō could be described as similar.» [Urashima Tarō spends what he thinks are just a few days in the Dragon Palace beneath the sea, but finds that 300 years have passed when he returns to land. See video description for more.]
«Similar patterns of such tales of going to and returning from the spirit world can be found all over the world.»
«Among the legends handed down in the Kantō area's Musashino region, one can find some interesting tales that also tell of similar situations.»
«The folk tales of Musashino, therefore, can also be counted among those, that have felt the influence of such a particularly folkloric view on life and death as described in the tales above...»
YUKARI: "Huh! It says there have been folk tales of people disappearing in Musashino, as well..."
CHISATO: "Who would have thought such tales were told here in our region, too?"
YUKARI: "But that means..."
CHISATO: "It might be better to check for info on folk tales from our region."
CHISATO: "I think we have a book called «Folk Tales from the Musashino, Tama Area» somewhere around here." [Tama is the area that contains Musashino.]
CHISATO: "So... Are you okay with taking a look at that one? «Folk Tales from the Musashino, Tama Area», I mean?"
YUKARI: "Sure, bring it here."
YUKARI: "Okay... Any tales in here related to people disappearing...?"
CHISATO: "Here! How about this one? «The Traveller that Vanished at the River»..."
«My grandfather would often tell this tale.»
«Once, there was a traveler who had come to this village, who wanted to follow the O-Dairi River all the way to its upper stream.»
«However, he left only to never be seen again. Even years later, it was never found out where he had disappeared to.»
«And I've been told that this was not an isolated incident, either. Hitherto, many people have followed this river upstream only to disappear without a trace...»
YUKARI: "O-Dairi River? Have you ever heard of a river going by that name?"
CHISATO: "No..."
CHISATO: "But here, look at this annotation!"
«This so called O-Dairi River is the locals' name for what is actually a branch of the T. River.»
«Tales related to this river often deal with a strange, unknown world that travellers encounter when they attempt to follow this river upstream.»
«In many of these tales, it turns out the traveller ended up in the spirit world, the world of the dead.»
CHISATO: "Hey, Yukari. Maybe what happened to Mika is somehow related to this...?"
YUKARI: "Well, it does deal with the phenomenon of people disappearing in this area."
YUKARI: "Might be a good idea to look into this further."
YUKARI: "The O-Dairi River, huh... Chisato, can you look for books somehow related to this river?"
CHISATO: "Got it. I'll go look."
CHISATO: "Okay, so... Which of these should we look at?"
A: «Atlas of Musashino, Tama» B: «Hinashiro's Local History» C: «Kantō Area – Modern History»
A: «Atlas of Musashino, Tama» [X] B: «Hinashiro's Local History» C: «Kantō Area – Modern History»
YUKARI: "We might find out where this O-Dairi River actually is, if we look at some maps."
CHISATO: "Give me a second..."
CHISATO: "Hinashiro... Here it is!"
YUKARI: "I don't see any rivers here in Hinashiro on this map..."
CHISATO: "I wonder where exactly in Musashino this river is supposed to be..."
CHISATO: "The scaling of this map is so small, it might be quite a chore to look for it..."
YUKARI: "Seems like a waste of time."
YUKARI: "Let's try another book."
A: «Kantō Area – Modern History» B: «Hinashiro's Local History»
A: «Kantō Area – Modern History» [X] B: «Hinashiro's Local History»
YUKARI: "This book... Seems like it deals with the history of the area around here."
YUKARI: "Maybe there's something helpful in there?"
«If we look at the Kantō area's history since the opening of the country [at the end of the 19th century], the political position in the Edo Period...»
YUKARI: "Sorry, seems like this book won't help us at all..."
CHISATO: "Wait, Yukari. Here's something written that might be relevant..."
«Even when Tokyo approached modern times, many grassy, undeveloped areas remained in its outskirts.»
«There even is an area in Musashino that has reports of people disappearing or being spirited away, dating back until the Shōwa Period...»
YUKARI: "This..."
CHISATO: "It's talking about our region!"
CHISATO: "So, reports of people being spirited away have existed here for quite some time already..."
CHISATO: "Let's take a look at «Hinashiro's Local History» next, okay?"
YUKARI: "That's the only one left, huh?"
CHISATO: "Yes."
YUKARI: "Wow, this book's pretty old."
CHISATO: "Hmm... Oh! Look! There are old maps in here!"
YUKARI: "You're right! Look here, Murayama Castle? Is that referring to the casle ruins on the other side of Sunmall?" [= A shopping mall]
CHISATO: "I think so..."
YUKARI: "In that case... Here, these mountains must be the ones behind our school!"
CHISATO: "There's a Shinto shrine symbol there, as well..."
CHISATO: "Maybe that's the shrine we saw in the mountains?"
YUKARI: "It says: «Hinashiro Shrine». Huh? Wait, the Kanji for Hinashiro are different here!" [Their city is written as Hina(雛)shiro(城), but the shrine is written as Hina(雛)shiro(代). Amongst other things, "hina"/雛 can refer to a Japanese doll. "Shiro"/代 could refer to "substitute" and also appears in ritualistic terms. Remember, for instance, that the mountains, where this shrine is, are called Katashiro Mountains, with Katashiro being paper dolls for purification rites.]
CHISATO: "Now that you mention it... On these old maps our town's name is also spelled with the other Kanji!" [雛代 instead of 雛城.]
CHISATO: "Wait... Look, this line here!"
YUKARI: "That's the O-Dairi River...? So there WAS a river in our city, after all."
CHISATO: "I just remembered something... Didn't our sociology teacher in elementary school say something to that effect?"
CHISATO: "That there had been a river running through our town once, but that river is now running underground?"
YUKARI: "Underground...?"
CHISATO: "Yeah, I think he said it was turned into a subterranean drain or something..."
CHISATO: "His explanation was, that they had sealed this river and turned it into a sewerage to avoid flooding and the like, if I remember correctly."
YUKARI: "Hmm..."
CHISATO: "Yukari, perhaps that book actually contains some info about this O-Dairi River?"
YUKARI: "Uuuhm... Give me a sec..."
YUKARI: "O-Dairi... River... Ah!! Here's an entry called «O-Dairi River Basin»!"
«The O-Dairi River carries a certain air of mysteriousness. It is thought that this mysteriousness might have attached to the river as a result of the doll floating custom, the Hina-nagashi, that was once held in this region.»
«On top of its ritualistic character, this custom of doll floating is also thought to have strong connections to the spirit world, so it might well be the soil upon which these tales grew, so to speak.»
YUKARI: "Hina-nagashi, the doll floating custom? What the hell is that?"
CHISATO: "I don't know, I've never heard of it before... Perhaps some sort of ceremony related to the dolls used on Doll's Day [a Japanese festival, called 'Hina-matsuri']..."
YUKARI: "There's a source for this entry cited right here: «Rites from Nishitōkyō»."
CHISATO: "Maybe we can learn more, if we take a look at that book?"
CHISATO: "Let me get that book, okay? Currently, this might actually be our last lead."
YUKARI: "Uhm... Yeah!"
YUKARI: "Here's something about doll floating!"
«Up until the war, the custom of doll floating could be found in a part of Musashino.»
«The river basin of the O-Dairi River was a particular focal point of this custom.»
«The original spelling of the town name of Hinashiro [now: 雛城, originally: 雛代], which lies at the bottom of the river, is said to come from the fact that so many Hinashiro [雛代, this could literally mean: "substitute doll"] dolls would arrive there due to this custom.»
«After the war, this custom came to an end, but there are still many elderly people who remember it fondly.»
YUKARI: "So that's actually the origin of our town's name..."
CHISATO: "Let's dig even deeper."
CHISATO: "There are a few more useful books here. Which one should I bring?"
A: «History of Japan – The Heian Period» B: «Cultural History of Hina-matsuri Dolls»
A: «History of Japan – The Heian Period» [X] B: «Cultural History of Hina-matsuri Dolls»
YUKARI: "Let's try that history book."
YUKARI: "This doll floating seems to be an old custom, so it might actually be mentioned in there."
«The culture of the Heian period's dynasty is thought to have been of much splendor, but Waka poems and the Genji Monogatari...»
YUKARI: "Nope... Sorry, this isn't useful at all."
CHISATO: "It's okay. Let's try something else."
CHISATO: "At this point, that book about the cultural history of hina-matsuri dolls is pretty much the only lead we have, though."
YUKARI: "That'll have to do. Can you bring it here?"
YUKARI: "Look...! There's something about doll floating here!"
«As is widely known, Hina-matsuri, or Doll's Day, originally came from China as a ceremony to drive away evil spirits that was adopted into Japanese culture.»
«One ceremony that became established as a variety of it is 'doll floating'.»
«But with the ongoing pollution of our rivers, this custom is dying out, as well.»
«Until before the war, it was still practiced in the river basin of a branch of the T River, located in Musashino in the outskirts of Tokyo, but with the river having been turned into a subterranean drain in the Shōwa 30s [1955–1964], that custom subsequently was abandoned.»
YUKARI: "This part about the T River's branch... That must be referring to the O-Dairi River, right?"
YUKARI: "So that doll floating custom was definitely practiced around here..."
CHISATO: "But I have never heard anything of this before, not even from my mother, so it must have been abandoned already long before the river was even turned into a subterranean drain."
YUKARI: "Hm."
YUKARI: "So where exactly is this O-Dairi River, anyway?"
CHISATO: "I don't know..."
CHISATO: "I could check again, if there are any helpful maps?"
YUKARI: "Yes, please."
CHISATO: "Got it. I'll be right back."
CHISATO: "Okay, which one sounds the most promising?"
A: «Industrial Listing of Tokyo Suburbs» B: «Musashino Fudoki» [Fudoki are ancient records of a province's culture, geography, folklore etc, created a long time ago, some even dating back to the 8th century.]
A: «Industrial Listing of Tokyo Suburbs» B: «Musashino Fudoki» [X] [Fudoki are ancient records of a province's culture, geography, folklore etc, created a long time ago, some even dating back to the 8th century.]
YUKARI: "Can you bring the Musashino Fudoki? We're researching something from the past, so an old record like that might be our best choice."
CHISATO: "Says here it was edited and published by Musashino's local research society."
CHISATO: "The editor mentioned here is a famous historian!"
«「No one person what followed the river upstream hath returned thence. Followest thou not this stream, lest thou findst thyself guided into the spirit world.」»
«This is one of the legends associated with the O-Dairi River that are often found in folklore of the Hinashiro region.»
«Judging from this legend, it can be surmised that the custom of doll floating is closely related to the archetypical story of traveling to and returning from the spirit world, that can be found all over the world.»
«At the upper stream of the O-Dairi River, the custom of doll floating, or Hina-nagashi, is practiced, and those Hinashiro dolls float down the river and end up in the river basin.»
«In order to comfort the paper dolls that have washed up on the riverside as well as to appease the misfortune they are thought to have carried down with them...»
«...a small shrine was built in the mountains nearby.»
«The name of this shrine is the Hinashiro Shrine (located in the mountains behind what is now the Hinashiro High School).»
YUKARI: "What? Hold on! A shrine called Hinashiro Shrine, located behind our school?!"
YUKARI: "Could that be the shrine we found in the mountains?!"
CHISATO: "It probably is..."
YUKARI: "But was there ever a river next to our school?"
CHISATO: "Not as far as I remember..."
YUKARI: "Chisato, what about that book we checked earlier... The one about our local history? There were some old maps in it!"
YUKARI: "Can you give me that book again?"
CHISATO: "Hold on... ...Ah, here it is!"
CHISATO: "There you go, Yukari."
YUKARI: "There it is... The O-Dairi River, flowing down all the way to the side of the mountains..."
CHISATO: "Hold on. We have current maps here, too! I'll get one!"
CHISATO: "Here."
YUKARI: "Thanks."
YUKARI: "Let's see... This is our school... And... these are the mountains behind it..."
CHISATO: "Here. This is where the river flows."
CHISATO: "Right behind the school."
YUKARI: "Huh? That thing? You call THAT thing a river?"
YUKARI: "I always thought that was a sewer!"
CHISATO: "Well, it's underground..."
CHISATO: "So this has to be the O-Dairi River."
YUKARI: "To think that that pathetic ditch was once such an important river..."
CHISATO: "Hey, Yukari... What do you think would happen, if we followed this river upstream?"
YUKARI: "What the... What are you saying all of a sudden?"
CHISATO: "Well that's exactly what was written in many books already! Even this one mentions it!"
CHISATO: "Here:「No one person what followed the river upstream hath returned thence. Followest thou not this stream, lest thou findst thyself guided into the spirit world.」"
YUKARI: "The spirit world..."
CHISATO: "I'm convinced that it will lead us to some kind of other world. The world that Sakura is in, for example."
YUKARI: "But..."
CHISATO: "Yukari, I felt something in those mountains."
CHISATO: "I clearly felt Mika's presence there, but... she wasn't in our world. I felt that she was in a different place."
CHISATO: "And if we want to go to that place, as well, we will need to follow the O-Dairi River upstream."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "Yukari, let's do this. We might really end up where Mika is!"
YUKARI: "You're really suggesting... we follow that dirty drainage?"
CHISATO: "it may be a dirty and unimpressive river now, but it's still the O-Dairi River!"
CHISATO: "Right now, it's the only lead we've got. We've got to stake everything on this."
YUKARI: "......"
YUKARI: "Got it. Let's go."
YUKARI: "So this is actually... the O-Dairi River...?"
CHISATO: "It's a river below the manholes..."
YUKARI: "But in the past it was above ground..."
CHISATO: "Yes... Even so, the power of this river has not been weakened..."
CHISATO: "Deep within... it's as strong as ever..."
YUKARI: "......"